>> suck it. everybody suckt. i'd be out. that's like my version of seacrest out. >> kathy griffin, it's been horrendous. what can i say? >> i miss you already. are you a nightmare, my friend. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> that's all for us tonight. >> that's all for us tonight. thank god. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> good evening. i'm don lemon. we begin in afghanistan with the single deadliest loss for the u.s. in that country since the conflict began in 2001. 30 u.s. military personnel lost their lives in a helicopter crash while on a mission early today. tonight we're learning who they are. their names, where they're from. and how their families will remember them. but first, the details on exactly what happened. this is file video of the type of helicopter that they were on. it is a ch-47 chinook. it had 25 special forces on board. most of them navy s.e.a.l.s when the taliban apparently shot it

down. now to pentagon correspondent barbara starr. >> don, in the worst single incident in ten years of war in afghanistan, 25 u.s. special operations forces lost their lives. 22 of them were navy s.e.a.l.s, many from the same unit that conducted the raid against osama bin laden, though none of the s.e.a.l.s on that mission were on this raid. a u.s. military source confirms they were rapidly called in to assist another unit that had been pinned down in a fire fight in the eastern afghanistan. the s.e.a.l.s came in on a chin noek helicopter when they went down. the official says there are growing indications it was hit by enemy fire, but a full investigation will be conducted. commanders and special operations and the navy are moving quickly to send assistance officers to the families and hometowns of those lost offering as much information and assistance as

they can. up remains are expected at dover air force base delaware in the coming days. >> barbara starr, thank you very much. president barack obama was notified of the helicopter crash and released a statement which reads in part "their deaths are a reminder of the essacrifices made by the men and women of our military and their families, including all who have served in afghanistan." there are nearly 100,000 u.s. troops in afghanistan right now. that's about two-thirds of the total nato force. but the u.s. special forces in afghanistan are a breed apart. retired army brigadier general mark kimmitt joins us now live from washington. is he now executive vice president of advanced technology systems, a defense contractor. general, what does this kind of loss do to morale? >> well, anytime you lose a soldier in your unit, it's going to affect your morale. i think our soldiers or sailors, airmen and marine who have been fighting for the last ten years understand that the most important thing you can do to honor that soldier is to buck

up, ruck up and just move out and continue the mission. >> is the taliban getting stronger just when the u.s. is beginning to draw down its troop levels? >> well, it's certainly trying to give that impression. whether or not that's the case is yet to be seen. i think we'll know by the end of this fighting season. but it may be that the taliban see this as an opportunity as the u.s. forces are drawing down, to give the impression that they're getting stronger and stronger. but they need to confront, however, the growing strength of the afghan national security forces that will be confronting them. >> what lesson can the pentagon learn from this tragic loss? >> well, listen, anytime there's an accident, anytime there's an aircraft mishap, there's going to be a thorough investigation done. that investigation is not only going to try to find out the cause of the accident, whether it was pilot malfunction, whether it was equipment malfunction, whether it was a shootdown, and learn from that

and incorporate that into new tactics, techniques and procedures so that we can avoid it again in the future. >> general kim met, thank you very much. we appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> let's get more insight into the s.e.a.l.s into today's tragic incident in the afghanistan. chris was a navy s.e.a.l. for ten years. given what we know so far, is there anything unusual about this intercept? these helicopters are reliable but they're slow-moving. >> that's correct. as a s.e.a.l., you're trained to the tip of perfection. you can say about yourself and your buddies with 99.9% certainty at this time that once you get boots on the ground, you are the master and commander of that situation. what you can't account for are the moments leading up to the n insertion and on the way back. as special forces operators, those are the times we cringe. we're putting our lives into the hands of the air crew and they can only control so much. so it's a very usual situation

to be in. very precarious though. we always hate the helicopter rides just for that reason. we can't control that situation. it's terrible. >> but that is the technology that you're faced with, and that so many of our service members are dealing with. listen, i realize the navy s.e.a.l.s are trained for any and every possibility. how would you say the comrades of those who died are doing right now? >> i tell you what, it's definitely -- it's definitely a hard thing for them to deal with right now. but knowing these guys like i do, they are already looking at getting back on that next platform, reinserting and taking the fight back to the enemy. it is a loss. we don't mourn each other in the ways that normal individuals do. we celebrate that person's life. we feel tremendously terrible for the families, for the wives, for the children, for the

parents. that's awful. but as warriors, we celebrate the lives of these individuals and the best way that we can do that is by getting back to our jobs and never quitting. and america be assured, we are not going to quit. >> as well as they can, i would imagine that the families of these s.e.a.l.s, they understand the dangers their loved ones face every day. >> yeah, that's correct. being a s.e.a.l. is hard. being the wife of a s.e.a.l. or the mother or the son or daughtering is extremely hard because at the end of the day, when that s.e.a.l. goes off to do his job, you don't know if he's coming home. that is a rough job in and of itself. >> what can people -- what can viewers do for these families? >> well, that's a really, really good question. people have been calling me all throughout the day. chris, what can i do? i feel helpless. here's exactly what you can do. you can logon to navy seal

foundation.org and make a donation. logon to wounded warrior project.org and make a donation. this money will get to these families right away. it goes toe bereavement, it will pay for the funerals and help to send their children to college and high school. it's probably the most important thing you can do today right now as an american is donate to those organizations without question. >> all right, chris heben, if you can just stand by. it's navy s.e.a.l.s foundation.org. chris was a s.e.a.l. for ten years. listen to this next interview and i'll talk to you on the other side. we know those killed in action were heroes choosing to fight for their country. now we're learning the details that hint of the devastation their families are feeling. erin carson vaughn was the father of a 2-year-old and 2-month-old baby. geneva is his grandmother and

joins me from union city, tennessee. we're deeply sorry for your loss. please convey that to your family. how did you learn that aaron had been killed? miss vaughn, are you there? >> yes. >> yes. how did you learn that aaron had been killed? >> his father, my son, called me after he found out about 8:00 this morning. >> did military officials tell you or your son anything about the attack and if the taliban were responsible? did they even go into that? >> no. all i know is about that is what i saw on the news. that the taliban said that they shot the helicopter down that my grandson was in. >> can you tell us about aaron? he lived in virginia beach, right? >> yes, he was stationed in virginia beach with his wife and

two children. >> yeah. and he had a 2-year-old? >> a 2-year-old little boy. he'll be 2 in september. and a 2-month-old baby girl. aaron only got to see her for two weeks. he was deployed when she was two weeks old. >> his wife, how is she doing? >> his wife kimberly. kimberly right now is with her parents in virginia with the children. she went there to stay until aaron came home from his deployment. >> we're looking at a picture of him on television now. and the last time you saw him and spoke to him, you had a very nice conversation with him. can you tell us about it? >> yes, yes, i did. it was aaron's birthday in june. he turned 30. and i told him to be careful. and he said granny, don't worry about me. he said, i'm not afraid because i know where i'm going if

something happens to me. aaron was a christian and he stood firm in his faith. >> and you said you know he's with the lord now? >> he's with the lord now. and i'll see him again some day. and that's -- that's what the family is standing on now is faith. we know that god is in control. and we know that he took aaron for a reason. we don't know what, but we know that he took aaron for a reason and the rest of them too. >> aaron knew the dangers and the last time you spoke to him, he said grandma, don't worry about me. >> that's what he said. >> why did he say that to you? >> as a brave warrior, aaron was brave but yet, he was a gentle man. he loved his family. he loved his country. and he was willing to give his life to protect his family and protect his country. he was a great american.

>> yeah. listen, aaron and many like him go off to war and fight these wars for the american people. and they are the reason that we're able to have many of the freedoms that we have now. what do you say to really the world who's listening about the sacrifices not only that aaron made but all of our men and women in uniform make? >> i say pray for our military every day. hold them up to the lord and support them in any way that you can. pray for their families because the wives and the children are the ones that they really have to be brave because when their husband goes away, they don't know if he's coming back or not. and this time aaron didn't. >> mrs. vaughn, are you going to be heading to dover? >> pardon me? >> are you going to head to dover? >> dover? >> yeah, do you know where they're going to. >> yes, yes.

we're all going. we're all going when his body comes back. >> okay. mrs. vaughn, our thoughts and prayers really go out to you. we thank you for being able to come on tonight and say kind words about your grandson and about our men and women in uniform. stay safe and god bless you. >> thank you, thank you. >> thank you. i want to go back to chris heben. we talked about the sacrifices of the families and the families are well aware of the danger, but you don't want to get that phone call that that grand pore got and the father got. >> no, that is the worst phone call you will ever get in your life. i assure you. my mother spent many a sleepless night over me. my younger brother is currently serving in the u.s. army special forces just recently returned from an afghan deployment. and my mom has spent many a night wondering if she's going to get that telephone call.

it is not a pleasant occurrence. >> yeah. everything that we're dealing with he we talk about, you know, the things that are going on in washington and quibbling over the debt ceiling and all those things it, really makes them in some way, they're important but seem insignificant when you talk about the possibility of the loss of life. >> absolutely. we're getting more air play today as the s&ps downgrading from us being a aaa to a aa plus. when you think about what has happened in and around that, it shouldn't even be airing in my opinion. that is a back story. that's something that the politicians need to figure that out. they need to figure that out quick. as americans we need to help the special forces community mourn these individuals. let's doe it respectfully. i'll have you know that probably a good percentage of the families of these guys that just lost their lives have not even been contacted yet. so that's -- there's still a lot of families wondering, is it me,

is it us? is this happening to us too? so i want everyone to keep that in mind. this situation is so fresh still, that a lot of these families have not even been contacted yet. >> chris heben, thank you so much. we really appreciate it. and your expertise on this, and, of course, we appreciate the grandmother, geneva carson vaughn, her grandson was aaron carson vaughn, the father of the 2-year-old and a 2-month-old and he died today in afghanistan. and we'll go to break with that. we have much more news here on cnn, but as chris said, this is more important. we've lost so many today and this is one of our brave men and women in uniform who made the sacrifice for us. hi there! that's not going to satisfy you. it's time for a better snack. here, try this. it's yoplait greek. it has two times the protein of regular yogurt. you'll feel satisfied. [ female announcer ] yoplait greek. it is so good. it's pretty good!

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that's happened five times was five different governments. one did it within nine years. the longest took 18 years to get back to aaa. >> that is a global head of sovereign ratings for standard & poor's on dismal prospects for the united states regaining its aaa credit rating. s&p downgraded the u.s. to a aa plus rating for the first time in history. could you have to pay higher interest rates on things like credit cards and insurance. and that's just for starters. this is just days after the ugly protracted battle over raising the debt ceiling ended with a deal that seemed to make almost no one happy. s&p says political gridlock is the main reason it did this, pointing fingers at both the obama administration and congress. but the report specifically calls out the republicans in this section. it says compared with previous projections, our revised base

case snos now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts meaning the bush tax cuts due to expire by the end of 2012 remain in place. we have educated our assumption on this because a majority of the republicans in congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe congress reinforced by passing the act meaning the debt skiing deal. poppy harlow will talk about this now. poppy, who's left in the aaa club now that the u.s. is out of it? >> you're exactly right. we got booted out of this club about 8:00 eastern time last night. it was 16 countries. now it's 15. if we have them, we'll pull them on the screen for you. australia, canada, germany, singapore, switzerland, the netherlands, you see them there on your screen. even the isle of mann, a tiny country off the coast of the uk. those are rated that pristine

aaa credit. the united states no longer part of that club. a aa plus credit rating is not the worst thing in the world. it's actually pretty darn good and it rates our debt higher than a lot of big countries out there. we are rated higher than china, higher than japan. those both having aa minus ratings. rated much higher than brazil and india, don. when you put it in perspective, our debt is valued higher than the debt of those countries. an interesting note here, china is the biggest holder of our debt, and almost half of the debt in this country, don, now is, held by foreign entities. that's why it makes it such a global story. it's certainly not just about the united states. >> there's a lot of consternation how they came up with this. a lot of folks in washington are saying they miscalculated. what factors did they use to come to their decision to downgrade the country's credit rating? >> there was this squabble last night between treasury and standard & poor's about $2 trillion, a significant amount

of money. standard & poor's said even if our projections are off, we still think the debt to gdp ratio in this country is unsustainable for the long-term and there ever do not think this country deserves a aaa credit rating. they look at, number one and arguably the most important was political. the political climate. we all know the bickering, the acrimonious in washington, the lack of getting a debt ceiling deal and until the 11th hour was a big market in this decision. the real economy, how is the u.s. economy from housing to jobs? we know it is not strong right now. what's the fiscal situation? you led into this segment talking about the bush tax cuts and whether they will be allowed to lapse or whether they will be continued. that's part of this. the external situation, how does the global economy look right now? it doesn't look great, especially when you look at the sovereign debt crisis in some european countries. finally monetary policy. the fed and interest rates in this country, they take five things into account, don, but as

you know from when this decision was handed down just over 24 hours ago, politics was key. >> yeah. i want to know how much because it appears standard & poor's doesn't even agree with the debt ceiling deal, and our agreement, the grimt that lawmakers made to get out of this. how much was this based on politics? >> you know, it's hard to say how much, but i can tell you it was one of two key factors. the first factor was the fiscal road that this country is on, just the math, the way they krumpbl the numbers and the second certainly was politics. it may have been the leading decision. i have the paper we all read last night when the decision came down. a lot of this is about politics in washington. a statement that i think is emblematic of just how disappointed they were with the way that lawmakers handled the debt ceiling debate. they said the political brimpgmanship of recent months highlights what we see as america's governance and policy making becoming less stable, and

less predictable than we previously believed. this is saying in essence they do not believe the way politics is going in washington as it relates to our economy is worthy of a aaa credit rating. that's a very troubling thing and again, we're in this uncharted territory now. we've never seen our credit rating downgraded and the timing is interesting and important. it came after the market closed friday. it gives everyone a weekend to sort of breathe through this before the markets open in asia tomorrow night. again, as you were saying in a previous segment, this is economics. this is money. this is important, but this is nowhere near the importance of all of those navy s.e.a.l. lives lost in afghanistan today. you got to put things in perspective, right, don? >> we don't know how all of this is going to work, if it's even going to affect the markets on monday. and interest rates. they say it is. we've had a little bit of time to digest it, but then uncharted territory. poppy, thank you as always.

a federal jury in new orleans convicted five current or former police officers in the controversial shootings at the danziger bridge in the aftermath of hurricane katrina. they were found guilty of civil rights violations. >> after the break, i'll speak with the mother of one of the men shot and killed on that bridge. [ jack ] what's for breakfast? um... try the number one! [ jack ] yeah, this is pretty good. [ male announcer ] half a day's worth of fiber. fiber one.

partnership with "essence" magazine, we go back to new orleans. one of the darkest chapters from hurricane katrina was an incident that became known as the danziger bridge killings. two people were killed and four wounded by armed men who turned out to be new orleans police

officers. on friday, five of those former officers were found guilty on 25 counts of civil rights violations. but not of murder. just a short time ago, i spoke with the mother of one of those who was killed on the danziger bridge. he was 17-year-old james brissette. as you're about to see and hear, she does not believe justice has been served. >> i am very hurt. i am very hurt by this decision. by this jury's decision. j.j. was my baby. he was my baby. he was very quiet. he was very passive. he grew up in a home with no cussing, fussing, fighting. he didn't hear none of that. so our home life was very quiet. you know, no step parents over, none of that, you know. so that's why he didn't know anything about fighting and all. i'm in a courtroom and i'm

looking at this picture where my child is as far against trying to get under the bridge for protection, as far as he could. these officers leaned over the railing and sprayed my child with bullets. my child was in pieces. the part that hurts me is that after six years, new orleans hard working investigation, they're guilty for everything except the fact that just it wasn't murder. he was shot to death. i'm like what? i'm sitting in the courtroom? i stopped breathing. my heart stopped beating. and i stopped breathing, and i'm like, yes, indeed. if you're hiding from me and i go out of my way to lean over, to search for you, find you, and then shoot you, but you weren't

murdered. you just was shot to death. i cannot understand that. i cannot understand that. >> why do you think it's so important for you? why do you want to be there for sentencing? >> because i want to know what kind of time they're going to get. i know what kind of time they gave my son. i know what j.j. got. he got forever more box of ashes. that's what he got. now you put my child in the box. you took his life. now the government -- and justice is going to take your life and put you in the box. >> sentencing for the five former police officers is set for december 14th. new developments from the very troubled horn of africa. thousands dying. many of them children from lack of food and water. coming up, we take you inside the crisis and show you what the u.s. is doing to help. [ jon ] we don't just come up here for the view up in alaska.

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war torn somalia, the government is celebrating its first night in control of the capital in five years. officials announced today that the rebel group that runs much of southern somalia has pulled out of the capital mogadishu. is the group al shabab is linked to al qaeda and reportedly fled the capital after fighting with somali and african union forces.

success on the battlefield could pave the way for aid groups to address the famine. the u.p. u.n. and international red cross say a horrifying number of people have been ached. latest estimate, 29,000 children dead from lack of food and water in the past month alone. aid groupses are also pleased by a "uss decision to relax sanctions against al shabab. earlier i spoke with our senior state department correspondent elise lab by the who explained how that decision could help humanitarian groups. >> up till now, basically any humanitarian group trying to operate in these areas has had to pay taxes and tolls to al shabab to get the aid through. that's one of the reasons it's so difficult. u.s. sanctions say no money, no u.s. aid can go to al shabab. if it does, she is people can be prosecuted. what secretary of state hillary clinton said this week is we know how difficult it is to operate in these areas. the u.s. doesn't want to make it any more difficult.

they're relaxing these restrictions on humanitarian groups. if some aid inadvertently goats al shabab, if they have to pay taxes or tolls, the u.s. is not going to prosecute them as of now, don. >> does this mean the u.s. could be letting groups aid terrorists? >> well, no. i mean, what the u.s. is saying is there's going to be procedures in place to make sure as little aid as possible is going to be diverted. but at the same time, they don't want to the penalize these groups. how difficult it is to get money. this is one of the real concerns about the somali/america community right now. they're wiring money home to help their families but they're worried it could be diverted to al shabab, al qaeda's affiliated with these groups. a senior state department is going to be traveling to some of these communities in minneapolis and seattle in the coming weeks to try and allay these fears. they're not going to allow money to get to them but be as lenient at possible in terms of these

restrictions. >> that was an lies labat reporting. somalia can test the survival skills of anyone. for people with disabilities, life can be unimaginably hard. students at the school for the blind learn what it takes to make their way in a dangerous world. we show you their world and why their life there is now in jeopardy. >> it's the children's break time. and although they're definitely having fun showing us their favorite games -- this is more than just play i'm. >> so who won this time? >> in war torn somalia's only school for the blind, playing is a matter of survival. in addition to braille, the children must learn to be aware of their surroundings. and in a country where disabilities are viewed as a curse and the afflicted hidden away, they're also learning to be proud of themselves and their gifts.

>> i felt lonely. >> she is a budding poet who wants to grow up to to be a professor. >> before when i was not in school, i was feeling that only all the world, i am only the gal who is blind. when i was in the school, now i learn something. i can do most things which i never thought. >> there are no figures for how many blind children there are here. but other than those blinded by war wounds, many somali children's blindness is reversible. if only the resources were available. six months ago, the founder of the school began knocking on the doors of families that he knew had blind children. he couldn't raise the funds needed for treatment, but he could try to ensure they were no longer locked away by their families. >> in somalia, they are not much known about blindness.

so the families do that when their child gets blind, they just keep on the bed, staying there, just eating, going to the toilet without doing nothing. >> for some parents, it's a matter of protecting their children. for others, in a country where every day is a struggle for survival, the burden is just too great. ali is 20 now and wants to learn english to be an interpreter. but as a child, he survived fending for himself on the streets of moog dee deshoe. he can mimic and recognize the sounds of the different weapons used in the somali conflict perfectly. >> the second is m-16. >> a talent that helped save his life. helping him to gauge the intensity of the fighting and how quickly he needed to reach shelter. >> i go to a school. >> now he says the school is helping change his life. >> and i have learned more

subjects. >> but he worries they won't be able to afford to do that much longer. >> the project is for relief education, for idbs, for whatever. but educating these disabled people, they are not much interested? >> in a country where millions are starving, the aid's agencies priorities are understanding. but he hopes someone will help him continue to give these children a purpose, not just give them aid. ♪ >> cnn, mogadishu. >> cnn will be sending more people to report on this. dr. sanjay gupta and anderson cooper will be reporting live from somalia on the devastating drought and famine next week. included will be an ac 360 special report, somalia on the front lines of famine monday at

8:00 p.m. eastern. you can help with the crisis, too. to find out how, you can go to cnn.com/impact. our impact website will tell you what aid groups need and how you can get in touch with them a all@cnn.com/impact. new vepts to tell you about out of syria. a major world figure acts to try to stop the bloodbath in the country. look at this. dramatic new video inside a missouri high school when a powerful tornado ripped apart the city of joplin. it's salonpas. this is the relief i've been looking for. salonpas has 2 powerful pain fighting ingredients that work for up to 12 hours. and my pharmacist told me it's the only otc pain patch approved for sale using the same rigorous clinical testing that's required for prescription pain medications. proven. powerful. safe. salonpas. agents, what did we learn here today?

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want to get you caught up on the headlines tonight. u.s. troops in afghanistan have suffered their deadliest single incident since the war began. 30 american troops died early today when their helicopter crashed during a mission in the province wardak. this is file video of the type of helicopter they were on. a ch-47 chinook. it had 25 special forces on board, most of them navy s.e.a.l.s when the taliban apparently shot it down. in the wake of a crack down in syria, u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon has called the country's president to plead with him to stop the violence and spoke with bashar al assad today to express his strong concern over the rising death toll. the observatory for humanitarian rights estimates 2,000 people have died in the unrest. take a look at these pictures. we'll have much more in-depth reporting coming up in the upcoming days. but this is from britain.

british police are trying to stamp out the riots in the north london neighborhood of tottenham. mobs torched police cars tonight while others looted shops and stores after a crowd marched on the police station angry over the death of a 29-year-old local man. police reportedly killed the father of four during an anti-firearms operation. more to come on cnn. it looks like a horror film, but instead it's video from the tornado that tore a path of destruction through joplin, missouri last may. cameras at the town's high school captured the twister on video as it battered the campus. the tapes were just released. the tornado destroyed a big part of joplin. more than 150 people died. the u.s. no longer has perfect credit. for the first time ever, the s&p took the country's top rating down a peg. up next, we take a look at what that means to you. ack. try this. it's yoplait greek. it has two times the protein of regular yogurt.

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for the first time in history, the u.s. has been downgraded to aa plus. the u.s. political climate is definitely one of the main factors in this. but there were five in all that will s&p considered. it looked at the overall state of the u.s. economy, which is not in good shape right now. taxes were a factor. the debt ceiling deficit reduction plan called for no new taxes at all and then there's the external situation. the global economy also very bumpy. final factor was monetary policy meaning federal reserve decisions on interest rates. >> no more debt. and i think standard & poor's made a great point to the united states government and their politicians when they said to you, hey, you guys are not getting your act together. >> all right. as you just heard, not everyone's dissing the downgrade of the credit rating. so are there any positives to this negative turn for american history? any positives here? and how will a aa plus rating

affect your family's bottom line? we're going to get answers from chris markowski of watchdog on wall street.com. he's also a former investment banker. good evening to you. do you agree with our i-reporter there? >> oh, i love it. i love it. i think this is a great, great thing. i think it finally makes us face our medicine. there's no mary pop pins or spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down. we've got to get our fiscal house in order. >> how will the average family be impacted on this? will this affect our daily lives in any way? >> well, you know, it depends. if you've got a lot of credit card debt, you may start to see your credit card rates bump up a little bit if interest rates are affected. everyone needs to understand something. we don't know what's going to happen on monday. still a lot of money has been flowing into the united states and everyone knows we've got a dire fiscal situation. everybody knows we're $14 trillion plus in debt. we haven't passed a budget in over 800 days at this point in time.

so, it may not affect it at all as far as interest rates. this is one of the worst kept secrets going. i think a lot of this stuff is priced in. i think the average family is not going to be affected much at all. >> so what if you're thinking of refinancing your home or buying a home, should you hurry up and do it? do we not note? >> well, i missed it wrong. i thought i was getting a good deal when i refinanced at 4.8% but could i have done better than that. this past week we saw the lowest 15-year rate in history. you always want to get your interest rates slows possible, especially on your mortgage payments and get all that credit card debt paid off. but you know, for the arch family out there, monday morning, you're not going to see any type of change. >> okay. what should investors do or not do on monday morning? just wait and watch? you said you're not going to see that much of a change. just hold on and be patient? >> i've seen more people lose money by reacting to situations rather than sitting back and

taking a deep breath and taking everything in than people who have made bad decisions in regards to asset allocation or even stock picking. so you don't want to jump and say okay, i heard some guy on the business program said i should do this. i'm going to go ahead and do this. if you've got your financial plan done the right way and you've got a goal centered portfolio, none of this is going to matter unless you think mad max is coming down the pike soon and we'll all be living in tuna fish cans and anstoring gold bars in our backyard. make sure you get your financial plan done the right way and sit this one out. >> chris, i've got to ask you this. everyone says invest, invest. you got to go into the market long-term. okay. so the market is tanking right now. is that actually good advice? is there somewhere else people should be putting their money into? should they be maybe putting it into real estate? you mentioned gold. a lot of people don't have faith in the markets right now and

it's understandable. >> that is understandable, but if you take a look at the markets over the long-term, when i say markets, i also inclue commodities like gold and you know food and there's various different other things. your portfolio has to be built around you. you shouldn't have everything in one stock or all stocks. real estate should play a part too if you're obviously getting positive cash flow from something like that. >> what about good old fashioned savings accounts? what about a good old fashioned savings account? >> you're losing money. what are they paying you? nothing. inflation rate is higher than that. if you're sticking your money in a savings account, you're losing money, not gaining money. >> that's better than seeing it negative when you get your portfolio back. you go wait a minute. i put in $10 and now i have $5? what the heck happened. all right. >> but you've got companies out there exxon, all these other companies that have aaa rating credit at this point. they're paying nice yields and good dividends. honestly, does anyone think they're going anywhere.

>> got you, chris. that's a final word. thank you, sir. have a great evening. >> got it. we're going to tell you about this cnn's hero. she survived three breast cancers. now she's paying it forward. big. from cheerios to lucky charms, there's whole grain in every box. make sure to look for the white check. there's whole grain in every box. at exxon and mobil, we engineer smart gasoline that works at the molecular level to help your engine run more smoothly by helping remove deposits and cleaning up intake valves. so when you fill up at an exxon or mobil station, you can rest assured we help your engine run more smoothly while leaving behind cleaner emissions. it's how we make gasoline work harder for you. exxon and mobil.

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enough to have a husband and family as a support system. now she's helping others as they cope with this deadly disease. >> when i was diagnosed with breast cancer, my kids were really young and i was working full-time. we were struggling. when you start adding hospital bills and medication costs, it throws your world upside down. my husband took care of me, took care of the kids. my parents and my friends did everything for me but through treatment, i was meeting women that just didn't have it as easy as me. all these people were there for me and i couldn't possibly pay everybody back. i decided i was going to pay it forward. my name is debbie cantwell and i provide care and comfort to young women fighting breast cancer. >> we send out gas cards, restaurant gift cards, grocery gift cards and house cleaning services. >> i was really bottoming out emotionally. and then all of a sudden, i can buy diapers and i can get food. >> yeah, lease a card. look at that.

>> it's so much more than just tangible things. it's hope. >> how are you? >> i help young women that can't wait for a cure. they need help today. >> hi, rachel, how are you? did your groceries come? >> they did, i just got them. i appreciate it. it's such a huge help. >> they're my sisters. i honestly would do anything to help them out. >> i take it really personally. it's hard when i lose somebody, but it's just part of the job. i'll probably die of breast cancer some day, but i want to really make the most of the time i have by doing some good in the world and being the best i can for whatever time i have left. >> since 2008, debbie's organization has provided practical abfinancial assistance to more than 150 young women with breast cancer. cnn heroes are chosen from people you tell us about. to nominate someone making a big difference in your community, go to cnn heroes.com.

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>> if imitation is the sincerest

form of flattery, lucille ball would no doubt appreciate today's gather is of lewis a look alikes in new york. 915 imitators set a record for the most in one place at a time. it's part of a weekend long celebration of lucille ball's 100th birthday. she died in 1989 at the age 77. but her legacy in tv history endures. all of us have a favorite episode and some are true classics, unforgettable moments that connect young and old. anyone who has ever seen will never forget them. here's one of our favorites. >> here she comes.